La Liga continues to grow in popularity in the United States with games from both Barcelona and Real Madrid last weekend exceeding 500,000 viewers per match.
Both the Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid and Malaga-Barcelona games were televised live on beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español. Out of the two matches, the 10:15am-12:15pm ET broadcast of Saturday’s match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid averaged 502,000 viewers across beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español combined.
Later that same afternoon, the Malaga-Barcelona match averaged 545,000 viewers on beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español. The broadcast was from 2:45-4:45pm ET.
While viewing numbers for Barcelona and Real Madrid games individually continue to soar on US television, another game from La Liga this past weekend posted a decent number too. The Sevilla-Deportivo game averaged 150,000 viewers on beIN SPORTS en Español for the 12:30-2:30pm ET broadcast on Saturday.
How does this compare to viewing numbers for MLS games shown in the United States? The most the top-flight league in the United States could muster last weekend was 233,000 viewers on ESPN for the 4-6pm ET Sunday broadcast of Orlando against New York Red Bulls, as well as 178,000 viewers for Sporting KC-Colorado on FS1 and FOX Deportes, and 173,000 viewers for DC United-New York City FC on UniMas and Univision Deportes.
According to the most recent subscriber data, beIN SPORTS is in 22.6 million homes, while beIN SPORTS en Español is in 18.3 million households. As a comparison, Univision Deportes is in 46.5 million households in the United States.
